William Saroyan Satire

William Saroyan once stated, “The message of each play comes from the world - which the writer regards as the only and therefore the best known to man. The comedy, tragedy, absurdity and nobility of these plays come from people whom the author regards as beautiful” (Remenyi 97). William Saroyan entered his way into the literary community by producing many successful short stories. These stories often expressed a sense of sentimentality and emotion while still equidistant to his witty sardonic manner. Satire is used when one tries to point out a flaw for society by using sarcasm or witty humor. Through the publications, details of his background are uncovered and reveal their influence on Saroyan’s satirical and unstructured style. The characters …show more content…
While he was growing up in Fresno, he was considered to be part of the working class. He spent much of his young adult life penniless as he tried to build his reputation as a writer. He began wandering the streets, looking for different jobs in order to support himself as he wrote. Saroyan spent much of his time within libraries typing on typewriters.When his efforts failed while job searching in New York, he was rehired at the Postal Telegraph company as a messenger. Later, while in mid adulthood, Saroyan began directing plays and finished writing The Human Comedy which expresses the struggles of the middle class during the time of World War one. “Good people are good because they’ve come to wisdom through failure. We get very little wisdom from success, you know” (Amirkhanian). Saroyan spent most, if not all, of his life dedicated to hard work. He works when times were bad because he truly believed in the working class. He works for his food, shelter, and success and hit many pitfalls along the way. His stories were not accepted the first time they were sent in for publishing and not all of his play were made to be shown in a theater (Leggett 10). In the preface of A Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze, Saroyan shares with his readers why he sought writing as his career. He did not believe in the fundamental rules of writing, and expressed that in a sarcastic tone. He does, however, …show more content…
He could be considered an ‘anchor baby’ due to the fact that he was born in America while his family was not, causing more reason for discrimination. His household was unstable, causing him extreme loneliness and despair. While growing up, Saroyan learned he had to work in order to survive, so he picked up a job and traveled to earn his keep. He began to value the working class because of his success after years of living off of almost nothing. He built his career and began a family, to then realize he was to be sent to Europe at the end of World War II. Through all of the negativity that he is surrounded by, Saroyan finds a way to banish loneliness and destroy his despair. His satirical writing is used in order to have people realize that people cannot run in fear. The only thing to fear is fear itself. “Sometimes he has a discerning eyesight; whatever foresight he has it is that of the self-advertiser, the clowning funmaker whose objective seems to compel the colorless and cruel world to succumb to the joyfulness and ingeniousness of a man by the name of William Saroyan” (Remenyi 93). In conclusion, William Saroyan, one of the greatest sardonic literary artists of the twentieth century, was able to take his own memories and turn them into stories in order to teach and prevent future social injustices